An American Who Helped ISIS Says Her Husband Tricked Her Into Joining Group

Samantha Elhassani says she was raped and abused in Syria. She is now in a U.S. jail.

6 months ago

Samantha Elhassani, an American woman who has claimed in interviews that her husband tricked her into traveling to Syria and joining ISIS, was charged this week with providing material support to the terrorist organization. The 32-year-old was charged in Indiana federal court with conspiring to provide material support to ISIS, as well as aiding and abetting two individuals in providing support to the group from the fall of 2014 until the summer of 2015, reports Buzzfeed News.

On top of that, Elhassani has been accused of “procuring tactical gear and funds” for two unnamed individuals “for their use in fighting for ISIS” in March and April 2015.

Elhassani and her four children, two of whom were born in ISIS-controlled Syria, escaped ISIS in late 2017 and fled to a Syrian Democratic Forces-guarded refugee camp. Her husband, Moussa, was killed by an airstrike while fighting as a sniper for ISIS, reports Buzzfeed.

Elhassani has said in interviews that her husband told them they were going on a vacation to Turkey in 2015, and the family was planning to move to Morocco, where Moussa was born, after the trip. But then, her husband took them into Syria, and she was forced between returning to Turkey with just her son, therefore abandoning her husband and daughter to ISIS, or staying together as a family.

“To stay there with my son or watch my daughter leave with my husband — I had to make a decision,” she said. “Maybe I would never have seen my daughter again ever, and how can I live the rest of my life like that.”